Watch Macbeth Lose His Head in New Spike Jonze Short

By
Caryn James
|
James on ScreensOctober 24, 2011 at 8:46AM

In Spike Jonze’s inspired new stop-motion short, the felt figures on the covers of old books come to life after hours in Paris’s historic and beloved Shakespeare and Co. bookshop. In Mourir Aupres de Toi (To Die By Your Side) Macbeth’s skeleton falls for one of Dracula’s beautiful victims, but true love (or lust; very tough when you don’t have a body) has to overcome dangerous tumbles into Moby-Dick and Faulkner’s Sartoris.

In Spike Jonze’s inspired new stop-motion short, the felt figures on the covers of old books come to life after hours in Paris’s historic and beloved Shakespeare and Co. bookshop. In Mourir Aupres de Toi (To Die By Your Side) Macbeth’s skeleton falls for one of Dracula’s beautiful victims, but true love (or lust; very tough when you don’t have a body) has to overcome dangerous tumbles into Moby-Dick and Faulkner’s Sartoris.

The charming film (co-directed by Simon Cahn) was inspired by designer Olympia Le-Tan’s embroidered clutch bags. When Jonze asked her to create a Catcher in the Rye wall embroidery, she asked him to make a film in exchange. You can feel Tim Burton’s dark-lovely influence too.

Le-Tan cut more than 3,000 pieces of felt to make the 5-minute film, but it was worth every snip. There has rarely been a more romantic skeleton.